This invention relates to a glove dispensing device. More particularly, the invention relates to a device which employs a cabinet having a sliding window, designed for allowing a user to retrieve gloves from the glove boxes stored within the cabinet while protecting the remaining gloves from contaminants and pollutants.
Gloves have become essential in the delivery of a wide variety of services, including health care, dental care, restaurant, laboratory, and many others. Despite the importance, there remains no standard manner in which gloves are dispensed. Consequently, gloves are often stored in unpredictable locations varying between different facilities. Moreover, gloves are often misplaced in drawers or cabinets where they are hidden from view, frustrating those who have immediate need for the gloves. Furthermore, gloves are often exposed to the surrounding environment prior to actual use.
While various references uncovered in the prior art provide devices that dispense gloves, no device dispenses gloves directly from commercially available glove boxes, which would eliminate the need to handle or expose the gloves to the surrounding environment prior to actual use, and which is specifically designed for mounting to the wall so that the device and supply of gloves can be easily located.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,105 to Fischer discloses a rectangular box-like enclosure fabricated from paper materials for storing a plurality of gloves and for individually dispensing them. The rectangular box, when filled with gloves, is similar to the preexisting commercially available gloves that are packaged in a box. Because Fisher requires the user to manually refill the dispenser with gloves, the gloves may be contaminated while they are exposed to surrounding environment during the refilling process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,620 to Kelliher discloses a glove dispenser which dispenses gloves from a tubular body. This glove dispenser provides some utility for transporting gloves in the tubular body which could be used in emergency situations encountered by the ambulance workers but is not useful for stationary use because the dispenser could be easily hidden or lost in drawers or cabinets.
While these units mentioned above may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.